1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates generally to pasta-food processing and handling, and in particular, to a bucket for holding and cutting elongated dry pasta food products, such as spaghetti. This invention also relates to a method for cutting elongated dry pasta.
2. Description of Related Art
Spaghetti pasta is typically extruded when soft and an approximately 45" length of past is hung over a dowel until it is dry. After the spaghetti pasta is fully dried, it is cut at its U-bend end into two 20" long pieces. Each 20" piece is typically cut in half (i.e., into 10" pieces) by rotating disc-shaped blades. The blades may or may not have saw teeth on them. Thereafter, the 10" pieces of pasta are cut in half by another set of rotating discs. However, dry spaghetti is very brittle and, therefore, is difficult to cut especially into pieces that are only about five inches in length. These 5" cut pieces of pasta are also difficult to control for packaging. Further, the cutting of spaghetti from the 10" piece down to a 5" piece frequently causes shattering of the pasta. This is especially true when the blades have saw teeth in them which removes material from the spaghetti during the cutting process. Either type of blade causes shattering of the pasta into uneven cuts and sometime into three or more separate pieces of pasta of various lengths.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cutting system for dry elongated pasta, such as spaghetti, which overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method for cutting dry elongated pasta that is simple to implement and operate without causing a shattering of the pasta while leaving the cut pasta in an easy to manage condition.